Wednesday, 1 December 2010

And Sew To Bed Project

Today is World Aids Day and the Craftivist Collective are having a bed-In replicating John Lennon + Yoko Ono's Bed- In (and celebrating Jon Lennon's 70th birthday) under their colourful peace + equality quilt at the Blue Coat Gallery in Liverpool.

The quilt has been slowly growing with contributions from other craftivists from all over the world. To see the patches in more detail visit the Craftivist collectives flicker pages. The purple spaces allow for visitors to the Blue Coat gallery and the West Everton community to contribute as well. Each patch addressing a local or global issue and aiming to raise awareness of national and international inequality and demand change. As always the Craftivists collective's protest is peaceful, engaging people in crafty action.

This is my contribution. I became aware of the Saharawis protest in an article by New Internationalist magazine via a friends link on facebook. I was really struck by the image, the taped up mouths and the way the young men have linked arms indicating a peace V with their hands. With every stitch I completed, I thought about their silent protest and how it spoke for so many other people also facing repression.

As one of the protesters stated in the article "Our silence said so much. Our silence was an eloquent denunciation of the repression to which we are subjected, our lack of freedom and the violation of our rights"

Tommy inspects the patches at Fabrications during laying out in preparation for assembling.

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Barley Massey in Fabrications, photo by Gary Manhine for the Hackney Museum

Fabrications is a shop and studio located on Broadway Market, East London. We are dedicated to contemporary textile practise with a sustainable agenda. We also offer workshops. For more information click on the picture above or cut & paste our website address! http://www.fabrications1.co.uk/